The United States of America as we know it is only 240 years old, still a baby when compared to most other countries.
Immigrants and people of different ideologies are the foundation of America. In being a home to everyone from everywhere, we will always be a laboratory for doing things differently – continually experimenting, learning, and evolving. But there are some who don’t want to experiment anymore. In fact, they want to close the laboratory down altogether.
President-elect Donald Trump ran a divisive campaign that was vulgar and openly hostile to immigrants, people of color, and non-Christians, among others. We questioned regularly if the president-elect could rise to the dignity embodied in the Office of the President. Furthermore, as of this writing, Hillary Clinton received 2 million more votes than Donald Trump. Which makes all of this even more difficult to unpack.
While many of us are dismayed by the outcome of the election, the fact is some of our neighbors voted for Trump. Many were very likely Barack Obama voters in 2008 and 2012 whose economic anxiety led them to vote against Hillary Clinton and what they felt was a tone-deaf and broken status quo. Still, we cannot ignore that Trump’s campaign kicked up a whole bunch of ugly, hateful silt in our country that we now must face together. To that end, we should attempt to engage and understand rather than unfriend and condemn each other. Point being, in recognition of our core American values, we all have more in common than that which divides us.
New York City is one of the most diverse cities in the nation. We all share the desire to live peacefully and ensure a better life for ourselves and our families. But we cannot accomplish this if we aren’t listening to each other and working together to understand just a little bit better what it’s like to walk in our neighbor’s shoes.
America’s story and spirit has always been about turning to face the biggest, most seemingly-insurmountable problems. Yes, sometimes we’ve been the bully but more often than not our country has been the kid who challenges the bully in the middle of the schoolyard for all to see. Now we are faced with doing so inside our own borders.
All across this country, and here in our own city and neighborhood, immigrants (including citizens), people of color, women, Muslims, Jews, and members of the LGBTQ community are anxious; they have very real concerns about what policies will be enacted over the next four years. Many are very aware – and some have been the targets – of increasing bias incidents over the past year. And many people who are not obvious targets for policy changes or bias incidents are equally apprehensive.
Diverse cultures and perspectives are the very backbone of our country. Living next door to someone from a different background than our own makes the “whole” that we share so much greater than each of our parts here in Bay Ridge, in Brooklyn, in New York City, and in America. Sure, these changes have presented occasional challenges but nothing that we can’t address and emerge stronger from.
Now more than ever, all of us, each in our own way, must take action. We can no longer sit silent or assume. We need to talk to friends, convert strangers into neighbors, attend a rally, donate to a worthy group, join a political or a civic action group, volunteer to coach little league, help clean-up a park or playground, adopt a meaningful cause, sign up to be an advocate – do something outside our comfort zones and go out of our way to engage with people from different backgrounds than our own. Most importantly, we can’t allow ourselves to be paralyzed by trying to make our activism perfect or waiting for just the right opportunity to jump in. As long as whatever we do is done with passion and purpose, that’s all that matters.
To that end, lifelong New Yorkers should feel more responsible than ever to look out for their neighbors, to defend and protect them because we are all in this together. Let’s work to show our neighbors and the world that our neighborhood does not stand for division and that Brooklyn, New York City, and America will never stop fighting for a country that is inclusive and accountable.
The soul of America is on trial here. It’s time for us all to stand up and testify.
